An Iranian diplomat was sentenced Thursday, February 4 to the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison by the court in Antwerp, Belgium, for having planned an attack on a rally of opponents of the Tehran regime in France in 2018. This sentence complies with those required by the prosecution during the trial, which was held in the autumn at the Criminal Court of the Flemish port city.
Assadollah Assadi, 49, who denies the facts, was prosecuted for “Terrorist assassination attempts” and “Participation in the activities of a terrorist group”. Three Belgian accomplices of Iranian origin were sentenced to terms ranging from fifteen to eighteen years in prison, as well as forfeiture of their Belgian nationality.
Reacting to Mr. Assadi’s conviction, the Iranian foreign ministry said that his detention, trial and verdict were against the law and in flagrant violation of international law.
Bomb attack foiled
This dossier, combining terrorism and espionage, has sparked diplomatic tensions between Tehran and several European capitals, including Paris. The Iranian regime had warned ahead of the judgment that it would not recognize it, saying that the procedure opened by the Belgian justice was not “Not legitimate, due to diplomatic immunity” by M. Assadi. Targeted opponents denounced for their part a project under the “State terrorism”.
A bomb attack was to target on June 30, 2018 in Villepinte, near Paris, the large annual gathering of the National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCRI), a coalition of opponents including the People’s Mojahedin (MEK).
The same day, a Belgian-Iranian couple living in Antwerp was arrested by the Belgian police near Brussels in possession of 500 grams of TATP explosive and a detonator in their car. The arrest takes place at the last minute, and the gathering can be held with its prestigious guests, about twenty of whom are civil parties in the proceedings alongside the NCRI (among others the Franco-Colombian and ex-hostage of the FARC Ingrid Betancourt).
At the time stationed at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, Mr. Assadi was arrested on 1er July in Germany, where investigators believe he no longer enjoys diplomatic immunity. The latter are in possession of images showing him on June 28 in Luxembourg delivering a package containing the bomb to the Belgian-Iranian couple.
“History”
Incarcerated in Germany, the diplomat was handed over in October 2018 to Belgium. He had refused to be taken out of cell to appear on November 27, 2020. According to the prosecution, the investigation showed that Assadi is in fact an Iranian intelligence agent “Acting under diplomatic cover”, and that he coordinated this terrorist project by relying on three accomplices, the couple living in Antwerp as well as a former Iranian dissident poet exiled in Europe.
The couple’s wife, Nasimeh Naami, 36, was sentenced Thursday to eighteen years in prison and her partner, Amir Saadouni (40), to fifteen years in prison. Former dissident Mehrdad Arefani (57), presented as an Iranian intelligence agent operating from Belgium, was sentenced to seventeen years in prison.
For the leader of the NCRI, Mariam Rajavi, this is a trial “Historical”, because “It is the whole regime which is in the dock”. “If they had succeeded, it would have been a disaster”said Mme Rajavi, while thousands of people attended the Villepinte rally. The NCRI, whose main component is the organization of the People’s Mojahedin, presents itself as the most important opposition movement inside and outside the Iranian regime. Its detractors accuse it of being a sectarian movement without representativeness. Founded in the 1960s, of Marxist inspiration, it was considered until the end of the 2000s as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
